India’s Gorshkov dream delayed by a year

New Delhi, October 10: The delivery date of floating deck cruiser Admiral Gorshkov slipped by a year, Russia made it official on Wednesday, even as India remained non-committal on imposing a financial penalty on the Russian shipyard as it failed to honour the contract that had finalized December 4, 2012 as the delivery date.

 

 

Even as the biggest irritant in the Indo-Russian defence trade – often termed as the “White Elephant” indicating the steep cost escalation of the warships - was far from being removed, both countries firmed up contracts for another 42 Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets and 59 helicopters.

According to sources, India conveyed its “serious concerns” about the delay of Gorhskov to be rechristened as INS Vikramaditya to visiting Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during the 12th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation Russia. However, Moscow washed its hands off the delay caused in the project saying it cannot be held responsible for the trial malfunction.

Addressing a joint press conference, Russian Defence Minister Serdyukov said: “The ship encountered big malfunction with the main power plant and the boiler. Right now the ship is relocated to the factory.” The Russian technicians are examining the cause of the malfunction and the 44,570 tonnes Kiev class aircraft carrier at Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk will only begin its trial in April 2013.

The Gorshkov programme had suffered a setback when after 90 days of sailing in the Barent Sea; seven of the eight boilers of the warship did not function at its maximum power limit. Sources indicate that the Russian shipyard might escalate the cost for the refurbishment of the warship as the Russians are claiming that it was the Indian Navy that insisted on bricks insulation for the boilers rather than the traditional asbestos coating and would therefore claim more in the name of dry dock maintenance.

“We have handed over the revised time overhaul and transfer schedule to the Indian side and we believe that transfer of the ship will take place in the 4th quarter of the 2013,” Serdykov added.

While Indian Defence Minister AK Antony insisted that the early delivery of the aircraft carrier was the primary concern of New Delhi, on the issue of imposing penalty on Sevmash shipyard for another delay in the project that has been marred by delays and price escalation saying: “This is not the time to discuss it.” The contract provides for levying a penalty ranging from .5 to 5 percent of the cost of the warship depending on the delay in the delivery.

The acquisition of Admiral Gorshkov has been full of the price escalation saga. Offered as a gift to the Indian Navy in the beginning, the Russians had used the warship to arm-twist the Indian government to cough up more money that was used to bail out the cash-strapped Sevmash shipyard. The soviet-vintage aircraft carrier was built under 1143.4 class aircraft carrier project and these carriers have a history of boiler failures during their service lives. The warship was launched into the sea in 1982 and commissioned into the Soviet navy in 1987. Gorshkov had to be docked in 1994 after a boiler room explosion in 1994. It returned to services in 1995 for a brief time and was finally put up for sale in 1996.

India and Russia signed the contract in 2004 for a package deal of $1.5 billion that included $974 million for its refit and the rest for the 16 MiG-29 K fighter jets. The initial delivery date was in 2008.

However project hit the headlines in 2007 when Russia said that it will not be able to meet its initial deadline of 2008 and pushed it back to 2010 and demanded upped the price to $2.9 billion. After years of strenuous price re-negotiations the deal was re-inked at $2.33 billion in 2010 and December 2012 was fixed as the delivery time.